All of you who missed the big event, raise your hand. No, not the Emmy’s. Or the Miss America pageant. The wedding, silly. Was that you in the sunglasses and baseball hat, holding forth at Brit’s big day? Well, actually, formally, it was her second big day. Britney Spears was wed this weekend. Again. The first wedding having lasted something like 59 hours and 12 minutes. Not that anyone was counting. Wait ‘til the good folks in Louisiana figure out how to ban marriages that last fewer than 72 hours.

This weekend, voters in Louisiana adopted a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C132825%2C00.html) The amendment’s backers heralded it as a wonderful opportunity to let the voters — not judges — speak on the issue. Because there were soooo many judges in Louisiana racing to issue decisions that allow gay marriage. And because that’s what democracy is — the right of the majority to limit rights of an oppressed minority. It feels good to know the “system works,” doesn’t it?

Ah, but I digress into something close to angry cynicism. This stuff — the hate-mongering disguising itself as state constitutional amendments “protecting traditional families” — whatever that means — that have already passed in Missouri, and are on the ballot in at least 10 other states — has got to stop. That a majority — no matter how big or small — can decide the rights of a minority with a pull of the handle or the punch of a ballot is wrong. Plain and simple, wrong.